Jobs among issues for Coldwater's future

COLDWATER — Jobs. More to do and a better looking and working community.

Those were some of the issue raised about Coldwater during a recent Place, Access, and Redevelopment (PAR) workshop.

The concerns came as a result of the walking and bus tours taken by 37 participants under a grant program related by Holly Madill of Michigan Association of Planning (MAP) in an interim report to the Coldwater Planning Commission.

Work continues on the grant project to plan for Coldwater’s future vision with a final report presentation scheduled for June 20 at Tibbits Opera House.

Commissioner Dave Rumsey rode with a number of younger students from Kellogg Community College. He agreed with Madill that for younger participants "the biggest thing was jobs and something to do" for them in the community.

"They were looking for different things for Coldwater," Rumsey said.

Madill said a number of the younger members wanted to stay in Coldwater for their future "and jobs were the first things on their lists."

Community Services Director Keith Baker said, "jobs came up a lot" from stakeholders community, business and public leaders interviewed in the early weeks of the grant study.

Another suggestion was to create a destination "place" for the Tibbits area for the whole community to enjoy — more than just the opera house.

Both the I-69 and Marshall Street corridors need improvement. Suggestions included more landscaping in the Fairfield Plaza area. Others suggestions from the group were left-hand turn lanes on Marshall, Division, and Chicago streets, more diverse restaurants, a better community identity, more teen-friendly activities, more public art, underground utilities, diversifying the commercial areas, cleaning up the east entrance to the city along with more trees and restoring and beautifying downtown and Four Corners Park.

Specific issues included the problem of turns off Marshall and Chicago streets, especially at Taco Bell. Some questioned the need for eight bars downtown. There was a perception from participants that South Monroe Street had a bad reputation, which concerned participants who did not want to walk there.

Rumsey said, "It’s just a perception. I walk down there."

Two more workshops will take place for more general public input. The one May 29 at the Community Health Center conference room will deal with transportation and connecting the places around Coldwater. The final conference will be June 18 at the Max Larsen Elementary gym and will look at the community’s vison of Coldwater in the future.

Planning Commissioner Aloha Miller urged commissioners and citizens to attend at least one of the workshops.

A Charrette, which is a multi-day planning collaborative, will take place at Zeta One June 18-20 before the final presentation.

In the meantime, Madill and Harry Burkholder of the Land Information Access Association (LIAA) will meet with high school students, senior citizens, those at the shelter house and Moslem Society for more community input.